Hi!

I am desperately seeking advice.

Our dog is a bullmastiff/pit/Anatolian mix (vet guess based on physical attributes). He's about 1.5 years old, 80lb, very healthy EXCEPT... He has bilateral lower lid entropion. We found out a couple months ago, the surgery is over $1k and we've been saving to do this. Doctor said luckily it's not emergent so we've been planning for January. However, vet said he might start having irritation and possible eye infections (which in recent weeks, he has been)

Anyway... He has two separate eye ointments we have to put in (erythromycin and neomycin). Vet said "hold his head, pull lid down and put ointment in" HA. Way easier said than done. He's a rescue, with trauma. He's 80lb of pure muscle and idk how many animals or even humans like having something forced in their eye. It's damn near impossible. We have to have THREE people hold him down in order to administer it. We've tried coaxing him with treats, doesn't work. At this point, we're traumatizing him further. His eye is so swollen and so bad right now, vet gave us mild sedatives for the next few days, to calm him down enough to give him the ointment to get it under control but EVEN THEN it's nearly impossible. And now he's becoming scared of us. Not to mention, I hate having to sedate my dog in order to give him eye meds. It's breaking my heart.

His surgery is set for January 6th. We don't know what to do until then. Does ANYONE have ANY advice or tips/tricks on how to administer eye ointment? Please help.